Medical Journal of The Islamic Republic of Iran (MJIRI)
Ethics

Ethical Consideration Etical Considerations and Misconducts

 | Post date: 2024/04/19 | 
Ethical considerations before submission
The following are the most critical ethical considerations that authors should be aware of when submitting their work:
  1. Informed Consent: Authors must ensure that they have obtained informed consent from human subjects participating in research studies. This includes disclosing the purpose of the study, potential risks, and benefits.
  2. Animal Research Ethics: If the study involves animal experiments, authors should adhere to ethical guidelines for animal welfare. Proper care, humane treatment, and minimizing suffering are essential.
  3. Plagiarism and Originality: Authors must submit original work and avoid plagiarism. Properly cite all sources and give credit to previous research.
  4. Conflict of Interest: Authors should disclose any financial, personal, or professional relationships that could influence their research or interpretation of results.
  5. Authorship and Contributions: Clearly define authorship criteria and acknowledge the contributions of all individuals involved in the study. Avoid ghostwriting or honorary authorship.
  6. Data Integrity and Reproducibility: Authors should maintain accurate data records and make their data available for verification. Reproducibility is crucial for scientific integrity.
  7. Ethical Approval: If the study involves human subjects, authors must obtain ethical approval from relevant institutional review boards (IRBs) or ethics committees.
  8. Patient Privacy and Confidentiality: Protect patient privacy by avoiding the use of identifiable information without proper consent. Anonymize data whenever possible.
  9. Reporting Guidelines: Follow relevant reporting guidelines (e.g., CONSORT for clinical trials, STROBE for observational studies) to ensure transparent reporting.
  10. Publication Ethics: Authors should adhere to the CC-BY-NC 4.0 policies for copyright and redistribution. Additionally, consult the COPE guidelines for necessary regulations related to ethical codes.

Ethical misconducts that authors must avoid
The following are the common ethical misconducts that researchers and authors should be aware of when publishing in MJIRI:
  1. Fabrication: Creating or altering data, results, or findings that do not actually exist.
  2. Falsification: Manipulating data or results to fit a desired outcome, often by selectively omitting or altering information.
  3. Plagiarism/Ghostwriting: Presenting someone else’s work, ideas, or words as your own without proper attribution. Ghostwriting involves hiring someone to write a paper and then claiming authorship.
  4. Image/Data Manipulation: Altering images, graphs, or data to misrepresent findings or enhance visual impact.
  5. Improprieties of Authorship:
  • Ghost Authorship: Failing to credit individuals who made significant contributions to the research.
  • Guest Authorship: Including authors who did not substantially contribute to the study.
  1. Misappropriation of Ideas: Using someone else’s intellectual property (ideas, concepts, hypotheses) without permission or proper acknowledgment.
  2. Violation of Local and International Regulations:
  • Ethics Violations: Breaching ethical guidelines related to human or animal research.
  • Regulatory Violations: Ignoring legal requirements for conducting research or reporting results.
  1. Inappropriate/False Reporting: Providing inaccurate or misleading information in research articles
Authors are reminded to adhere strictly to ethical guidelines during the preparation and submission of their manuscripts. Failure to comply with ethical standards may result in rejection prior to publication. Additionally, if ethical misconduct becomes apparent after publication, the paper will be promptly withdrawn. Authors of withdrawn papers will be held accountable, and further publication in MJIRI may be affected.